Monthly Archives: February 2013

The World Baseball Classic is back, starting this weekend and MLB Network is showing every single game this time around – all 39 of them. Four years ago when MLB Network was a newbie on the block, it shared its WBC duties with ESPN.

World Baseball Classic Today Studio Show Premieres This Saturday, March 2 at 11:00 a.m. ET

Joey Cora to Serve as Guest Studio Analyst from March 7-9

Secaucus, N.J., February 27, 2013 – MLB Network’s exclusive English-language telecast of the 2013 World Baseball Classic in the United States begins this Friday, March 1 at 11:30 p.m. ET and continues with all 39 games of the tournament through the Championship on Tuesday, March 19 at 8:00 p.m. ET. MLB Network’s Bob Costas, Jim Kaat, Joe Magrane, Harold Reynolds, John Smoltz, Matt Vasgersian, Tom Verducci and Matt Yallof are among the group of announcers scheduled to call the tournament, produced by MLB Network in the United States and by MLB International abroad.

Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman appeared on Mike Francesa’s show earlier this afternoon where he discussed a myriad of subjects from the catching situation to the outfield situation to the Alex Rodriguez steroid and hip injury situations – Yes, they’re all situations. He also happened to mention that the Yankees did, in fact, make a significant offer to Robinson Cano but that’s all he’d say. He didn’t go into much detail about it.

Earlier this offseason, Hal Steinbrenner said the club would be willing to consider an extension with Cano who will be a free agent after this season.

Cashman’s appearances on Francesa’s show are always fascinating to me and I apologize for not being as thorough as I was yesterday with Girardi’s appearance on the show. I was just mesmerized by Cashman’s body language and how it looked like he’d rather be in a torture chamber than be within two feet of Francesa. At least, that’s how it looked to me.…

A good thing about the game: the pitching. David Phelps started and looked strong. He lasted three innings, gave up two hits, one walk and he struck out one batter. Phelps will be a key piece to the Yankees’ pitching staff in 2013. Another key piece will be David Aardsma, especially if he can stay healthy. Aardsma pitched one inning and he didn’t allow a hit, he didn’t surrender a walk and he struck out one batter. The lone run of the game came off Chase Whitley, a solo shot by Andy LaRoche.

A bad thing about the game: Marty Foster. He threw Chris Stewart out of the game after a bad call at first. Really dude? It’s February 28, calm down.

CC Sabathia watched Mo in action and was amazed at how he was able to throw the ball where he wanted it to go in February. Really, CC? It’s Mo, you can no longer be amazed at anything he does because the man is otherworldly.

Sabathia should be having a bullpen session within the next few days and is anxious to get into a real game. Thankfully, he hasn’t had any setbacks where his surgically repaired elbow is concerned.

It’s a little crazy when you think about all of the key pieces of the team who are returning from surgery this season: Mo, Sabathia, Derek Jeter and Michael Pineda will all have anxious Yankee fan eyes watching them this Spring and into the season.…

During the day (and night thanks to a certain “media personality”) Tuesday, Joba Chamberlain made some small waves with his comments about his ability to be a starting pitcher; not surprisingly, he still thinks he can start. Obviously, this isn’t going to happen for the Yankees. Joba will be a free agent after...

The Yankees barely have a third outfielder to start the 2013 season. Yes, they’re loaded with depth, but hardly any of these players have even seen Triple-A. Matt Diaz, Juan Rivera, and Thomas Neal may be the most prepared players, but Diaz and Rivera couldn’t even break a .290...

It’s the last day of February and you know what that means, we’re just over a month away from Opening Day and it’ll be here before we know it. And that’s a good thing because I really can’t handle much more of what the media is dishing out these days.

First up, Joel Sherman of the New York Post’s hatchet job on Joba Chamberlain. Yes, Joba opened his mouth when he probably shouldn’t have. So what? That doesn’t mean you have to spend an entire column trashing him and bringing up his freak injury last year, which happened when he was with his child, as a way to make him seem like a bad guy. That’s below the belt even for Sherman.

In the end, you can have a pretty good argument the organization has harmed Chamberlain as much as he has hurt himself. Did they rush him too quickly to the majors and let a cult of personality set in?

You know what else is possible? It’s possible that Hughes may not miss the start of the season. It’s also possible that I could win the lottery.

I feel like everyone is overreacting to every bit of news or every quote to come out of someone’s mouth. I get that it’s Spring Training and we’re all bored and that people are looking for stories but I listened to Girardi on Mike Francesa’s show earlier this afternoon and he said Hughes has been pain free.

How did we go from someone being pain-free which seems like good news to me to someone possibly not being ready for Opening Day?…